Did Red Sox’s ceremony for Mariano Rivera hit a sour note?

The Boston Red Sox were the latest team to wish the best for New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who is retiring at the end of the season. The presents Rivera received from the Yankees admirable foes were very well thought out: a portrait of Rivera, a number 42 from the scoreboard and some visitor bullpen rubber (there was also the poem for Rivera but that wasn’t an official gift). However, what was a joyous occasion took a slightly awkward and controversial turn Sunday night, when the Red Sox posted a video for Rivera on the scoreboard, showing him at his worst during the 2004 ALCS series, a series the Red Sox would later go on and win.

Mariano Rivera is too classy and too polite to say anything, so of course he said it was a beautiful ceremony, even when he was asked about the video. Manager Joe Girardi felt a little differently. The media asked Girardi what he thought about the video but Girardi avoided the question by saying that he loved Rivera’s gifts.

Yankees fans had mixed reactions about the subject, ranging from a classless act by the Red Sox to the Red Sox making a bad attempt at a joke. Here were some of the Twitter responses:

@dfiregirl4 I think we all knew it was coming, and he handled it exactly as he handles all things: with class. I’ve no issue with it.

Now, I admit that when I saw the Red Sox video, I felt that they could have done without the 2004 footage since the ceremony wasn’t all about them–it was supposed to be about Mariano Rivera. But in the end, does it really matter what I think? No. It should matter what Mariano thinks. From the look on his face and that sparkle in his eyes, knowing that the season is slowly winding down and there aren’t many games left, it looked as if he loved every minute of it. Besides, the Red Sox got one series. Mariano Rivera has the all-time record in saves.

Notes & News

— The Yankees finally figured out why Boone Logan‘s elbow has been bothering him: he has a bone spur. Logan said that he’s going to get through the last couple of weeks of the season, and then have surgery in the offseason to repair it.

—Austin Romine was originally in the Yankees lineup, but was scratched. There was a bit of miscommunication between the staff and Romine. Romine believes he’ll only need a day or two more before he’s able to take the field.

—Alex Rodriguez is once again the DH. It makes sense since the Yankees are on artificial turf, but Rodriguez has been nursing a hamstring injury. He was pulled from the game on Sunday due to a tight calf, so you have to begin to question just how healthy A-Rod is.

Whoever made the decision of using that video must have an inferiority complex. If you're going to roast a guy, it should be at his retirement party where he might get a sense of it coming. It was certainly classless. If Buckner was one of the greatest of all time and got a sendoff by the Mets, they should not be showing Mookie Wilson slapping a ball past Buckners legs. If the Red Sox's win the world series, the Yankees should use their first home series against the Red Sox's to show a sign of respect for what they accomplished in 2013 followed by a short video of Bucky Dent hitting that 3 run home run off Mike Torrez in the one game playoff in 1978.

Before this year I used to say that the redsucks had the Loreal jealous attitude, meaning don't hate me because I'm beautiful. After I heard/saw their fans applauding when they hit ARod deliberately I told myself the team and the fans are worthy of each other but showing Mo's performance against them in 2004 demonstrates their lack of class. The gifts were nice, but the video is red sox nation at its best. What can you expect from them? They hate the Yankees, but hey only need to win 20 WS to catch the Yankees….Hey, catch us if you can!